The Oak Harbor girls soccer team spent last week collecting wins as they went 3-2 against Marysville-Pilchuck Sept. 19, and Saturday they beat out Lake Stevens 2-1.
Junior Tina Nicolas rocked the first half of the Marysville-Pilchuck game, scoring two points for the Cats, both on unassisted break-aways. Another junior, forward Jenny White, added a tally for Oak Harbor when she scored in the second half with a little over a minute to go.
Both of the goals scored by Marysville-Pilchuck against Oak Harbor were the result of “a breakdown in the middle of the field,” according to Oak Harbor coach Gretchen Hanson.
Devon Schulock worked the net during the game against MP, and the junior goalkeeper played all but the last 20 minutes of the 90-minute match. Sophomore Sheena Paddock went in at goal for the remainder of the game.
As of Tuesday, before last night’s league games, Oak Harbor sat in the second spot and just one point behind thus far undefeated Snohomish. The Cats have three wins, one tie and one loss. The team at the top is also the only team to beat Oak Harbor so far this season.
The pre-season district polls ranked Oak Harbor number one in skill and ability, but they haven’t risen to their full potential according to coach Hanson.
“I haven’t seen them break through and step up and play through a whole game so far,” Hanson said last Friday. But that was last Friday.
Saturday the Wildcats kept it close again in their 2-1 match against Lake Stevens.
Hanson believes the girls “have the ability to beat any team, they just have to play the whole game.” Stepping up and playing the whole game allowed Oak Harbor to put away the win against Lake Stevens.
“They played the whole game, back and forth, switching it up, they played the whole 90 minutes,” Hanson said Tuesday.
The Wildcats held down Lake Stevens, going into half-time with their opponents up one. The goal against Oak Harbor came from a penalty shot that deflected off the Cats’ wall and just out of the reach of goalkeeper Devon Schulock, who worked the net during the first half.
Defender Kaylea Kingma made the first strike of the second half against Lake Stevens, scoring off a corner-kick by Jenny White. The Wildcats’ win was sealed by junior Gretyl Pruss who “scored off a cross when the ball was shifted from the weak side,” Hanson said.
The results of last night’s game against the Cascade Bruins, who are nipping at Oak Harbor’s heels at third place in the Wesco North standings, were not available as of press time.
Thursday Oak Harbor travels to Mount Vernon and the next home game will be Oct. 1 versus Monroe.
